• The Tree represents the cultivated olive tree mentioned in Romans 11:17-18 and Romans 11:24, which contains Jewish and Gentile believers. There is only one cultivated olive tree, representing the true and eternal Ekklesia of God. There is no separate Jewish or Gentile Olive tree, but one tree made up of believing Jews and Gentiles. Therefore, the Olive tree represents the coming together of the Jewish and Gentile believers to form the one body of Messiah, the One New Man, as described in Ephesians 2:11-22. 

Notice the nature of the cultivated Olive tree in Romans 11. Its roots are not Gentile, but Jewish, that is, based on the covenant promises God with Abraham and his descendants. Gentile believers are like branches cut out of a wild olive tree and grafted into the cultivated olive tree, whose roots are Jewish (Romans 9:4-5, 11:17-18). Therefore, the Olive tree represents the Hebraic/Jewish foundations or roots of the faith. There is not another tree with a different root or foundation for the Gentile believer to be grafted into.

• Our name, Beit-Shalom: Shalom comes from the Hebrew root word, shalem, which means wholeness. One of the titles of Messiah from Isaiah 9:6 in the Hebrew original is Sar Shalom, which is translated as Prince of Peace/Shalom. Beit is Hebrew for House. So, Beit-Shalom represents a faith family of those who were once living in brokenness, but now, in the Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace), is being made whole. 

• The phrase, Shalom for your community conveys the outward flowing aspect of our faith. Shalom and wholeness in Messiah is not something we keep to ourselves, rather it is like streams of living water pouring out from within us into those around us, into our communities [John 7:38].